tl;dr Play it if you're going to give feedback or if you can get a save that bypasses the first half of the game. Reason being that the second half is engaging with some character development (though the characters themselves are just serviceable), while the first half is a barrage of cliches that drag on too long and are not really handled in an interesting way. The writer demonstrates some skill, but some shortcomings as well. The gameplay elements are about the same. End result is that it's not worth playing for the story, probably, but there isn't really much else there.

Since people keep apologizing to me after I write reviews, I want to say right here that I did enjoy playing (the second half of) this game and do not, in any way, regret playing any of it. I do intend to play further chapters, perhaps, so long as I don't have to redo that first part.

Since this is a Visual Novel, the spoilers start HERE, in part I. This is in the interest of giving the best feedback possible. In part II, you can find the notes I took while playing through, which are mainly intended for the developer.

The story is wise enough not to start at the beginning, but rather it drops the player into a scene where there are plenty of questions. This axiom is followed only in rule, though, not in spirit. Soon enough, the story that the player is curious about gets hijacked by a memory that starts from the beginning and lasts the rest of the demo. This is the coffin that the game builds for itself.

The writer has created a large world and is wise enough not to have open exposition dumps, but closer inspection reveals that the world looks and feels like a stock creation; like it really could have been anything. The details seem to serve to distract from the fact that it is just like any other warring states backdrop you've seen. Some of the details affect plot movements, yes, but they are not plot movements that the player directly cares about.

The characters are also interesting at first glance, but quickly fall flat. Ian's brother at first seems like he has a personality and some nuances (he's really into chemistry, apparently) but doesn't get any development. He does, however, get railroaded by the plot into playing a role we've all seen a hundred times. Somehow, he puts a few unique spins on it that the writer should be congratulated for, but then he disappears and is never heard from again. We miss out on his reaction to his circumstances, for the most part.

Ian's father came off as fairly flat to begin with, then quickly set about becoming even more one-dimensional. His super heartless parenting is all backed up by details from the backdrop but still feels like it's just happening to assist some desired plot in happening. It is painfully predictable but is dragged out over a very long length.

River, the initial love interest, is recognizable as such even before she steps onto the screen. Sure enough, love at first sight (as a 10 year old) that eventually blossoms into a cheesy (10 year old) romance that becomes a cheesy YA romance after a time skip. There are some interesting parts to her character that all but drown in the sea of not-this-again. Again, this is dragged out for way too long, given that it isn't anything that's even trying to feel new or fresh.

Honestly, if the whole 10 year old part was cut, the VN would be much better. Even if it was shifted to be later in the demo/VN and broken up a bit, it would be more palatable.

Later on, we meet Luna, who is the most developed character outside of Ian (the main character) himself. From the get go, one practically chokes on the sense of 'otherness' that hangs over her. She is, first and foremost, a woman. This is the reason for just about everything she says or does. Were there some female character to compare her to, she would look absolutely silly in how one-dimensional she is. Well, she does have some interesting bits of back-story, but they're basically what you would expect from a woman in her position because that's how women are done in these stories.

As for Ian, he doesn't have too much of a personality outside of basic protagonist fare. He's a nice guy who looks out for his people and wants to marry the girl of his dreams but must first tackle problems. He's naive and a bookworm; the main alternative to being dumb and a swordsman. He doesn't develop a whole lot, but, I never really cared enough about him to miss the missing info.

The result is that the overall plot is solid, but relentlessly familiar. It would benefit greatly if less focus was given to the areas that are stock and more was placed on the actual meat of the story.

It wouldn't hurt for the author to explore a more nuanced view on women, either.

Gameplay wise, there isn't much, but what there is sometimes feels like it should have been a cutscene. Usually it's a 'who do you want to talk to' sort of thing, which is ok, but when it comes to solving puzzles...oftentimes, what needs to be done is very counter-intuitive and/or requires the player to recheck every interactable object multiple times to see if the output has changed. The player may even have to try things which they can clearly see won't work in order to set up the 'flag' which allows for the option of the thing that will do the job. This isn't tough to fix, but, really does need to be changed.

Overall, it does some things well and some things poorly, but unfortunately has the poorly done things stacked up in the first half, making it hard to get into. The story, despite some bright points, is brutally stale in the beginning and looks good only by comparison in the second half. The characters, though, get much, much more interesting in the second half, which makes it worthwhile. This is a product of better, briefer characterization and better plot movement in which to get said characterization done.




-The opening screen is pretty fantastic. Opening music is low-key, but fitting.

-The intro starts with a quote, which is fine, then a screen telling me the name of the game, which I've just seen.

-We move right into a bit of dialogue which is just slightly off ('it's greed that make your legs move' should be 'it's greed that makes/made your legs move'). It's a translated game, though, and in beta, so I don't mind that.

-The characters seem to be VX? whereas the tileset is VX ACE. Since I've seen so many RPG Maker games, the characters initially look like giants. I'll get used to it, though.

-The two characters we see set about looting CORPSES.

-One of the CORPSES is not quite dead and a PHYSICIAN shows up and scares off the VAGABONDS. He takes the LIVING CORPSE to his office and plays with its BRAINS. Three days later, IAN VAN CORPSE wakes up with mild amnesia.

-He's now talking about a childhood memory from when he was 10.

-Nevermind. It seems I'm playing him as a 10-year old in his memory.

-I meander around the room while IAN THE KID talks to himself. Though, every object seems to have an interaction, which is nice.

-I walk down the hall and hear my brother, VINCENT, playing doctor with the CHAMBERMAID.

-I walk in.

-A short while later, my brother is talking to me in the hallway and attempting to swear me to secrecy. I get a dialogue choice, which means that I'm building this character myself to some extent?

-I go to the library like I'm supposed to and begin reading BOOKS. There's lots of info and maps and stuff. I don't particularly care about the world yet, so, it's not entirely welcome...but it's all optional and not too long so w/e. I just wish I wasn't in a memory sequence, since it feels like nothing I do here will really matter as it's all the past.

-I get dragged through town by my father. Colored text appears above peoples heads that is usually not too hard to read, though some bits are tough to make out.

-I get introduced to the BAKER and his DAUGHTER, who is undoubtedly going to become the LOVE INTEREST. Especially obvious because she has an uncommon name AND a nickname. AND because IAN stutters when he talks to her. AND because she gets a little face animation that hasn't bee done before. AND because IAN thinks to himself that she is beautiful.j

-I'd make a joke here about laying it on thick, but...it practically makes itself.

-That apparently ends the memory segment. Or, rather, there's a bit of dialogue in the present before it continues.

-The day ends and the next begins. I have little idea of what to do.

-Branwen's room is locked, but, the message telling me this is in FRENCH.

-Entering the LIBRARY has IAN talk to himself about how he'd rather go see LOVE INTEREST.

-I get a quest when I leave the house. It says I am to 'Ask LOVE INTEREST if she wants to go out with you.' That...escalated quickly.

-Also, I'm 10, and I've met her once and talked for less than a minute. About CAKE.

-I talk to someone in town. Her FACE blocks off the first part of her name. She remarks only about how nice it is to be taking a walk in this weather. Some other folks have slightly more relevant stuff to say, but nothing really.

-The boundaries of town are marked in many places by INVISIBLE WALLS.

-I eventually go and find LOVE INTEREST and we immediately begin talking about CAKES.

-She 'TEEHEE's. I cringe.

-She invites me to come play in the FOREST. Now taking bets on whether or not something TERRIBLE will happen.

-We walk into the forest holding hands. Probably whispering sweet nothings about CAKE while we go.

-CONVERSATION ensues. It very quickly turns to CAKES. Totally serious.

-We walk a perfectly straight path through the FOREST with few trees to get to a CLEARING. I get a quest to find the perfect flower for the 'flower of my heart,' who is spinning in circles and making whimsical noises.

-24 minutes in and I'm still in the introduction. I still have no idea what's going on in the world that I should be concerned about other than a non-descript war.

-LOVE INTEREST remarks on how she'd love to wear beautiful dresses and never work hard again, right after IAN basically proposes to her.

-Just a reminder, they're 10.

-I get a CHOICE of which game to play with LOVE INTEREST. The selection thing is a sword, which is strange, as there's been nothing to do with swords in the past half hour.

-Rather than a cut-scene or adaptation, I literally play HIDE AND SEEK and TAG with LOVE INTEREST.

-The next day, I wake up to my FATHER forcing my BROTHER into an arranged marriage instead of allowing him to marry the MAID. This goes on for a while. FATHER is basically being a jerk in the same way that every other father of rank has in whatever other story you've read. BROTHER is, of course, not experiencing any new emotions here either. For that reason, it would be best not to drag this out so long...we all know exactly what's happening, and it isn't all that interesting since it's been done so often in the same way.

-I enter BROTHER's room and listen as IAN talks to himself for a while. Of note, he remarks about a broken bottle that 'BROTHER threw this against the furniture before I entered the room.' Not sure how he knows that since he wasn't in the room, but...ok...

-BROTHER remarks on how he's going along with the arranged marriage in part to make sure that IAN doesn't have to sacrifice his TRUE LOVE one day. That's a new touch, and a nice one.

-I talk to the MAID and learn that my mother was apparently a MAID who married the DUKE she worked for. This makes FATHER even more of a JERK. Well beyond believable proportions.
UPDATE: MOTHER was an INNKEEPER.

-The sound of her CRYING continues to play after I step into the hallway.

-I go to the CLEARING and talk to LOVE INTEREST. This also goes on for a long time.

-I suppose that, this being a VISUAL NOVEL, talking can go on longer than usual. However, it would certainly not hurt if it were more concise, especially in the areas where it's playing exactly to form.

-I should probably think about this more like a book, though, that still leaves much to be desired. There has yet to be a HOOK.

-FATHER brings me along to visit the DUKE of SOMEWHERE. I end up being sent to play with the DUKE's DAUGHTER while they talk. Gee, I wonder where this is going.

-It does not help that the fire effects lag my laptop.

-I get sent off to find the DAUGHTER's CAT and overhear some guys in the basement discussing their plans for REGICIDE. Basically, they're going to kill my FATHER, I bet.

-I tell the ADULTS and, of course, they don't believe me. Oh well.

-That memory segment ends after I meet with LOVE INTEREST and discuss CAKE for a while. Seems some KING really did get offed and that started the whole war.

-And we're back into another memory segment, albeit IAN is older now.

-Oh look. FATHER is marrying IAN off to DUKE's DAUGHTER. What a surprise.

-IAN seems to take the news pretty well.

-Though he tells LOVE INTEREST that he was pretending.

-Anyway I get sent off to some mercenary camp to earn the necessary honors to marry the DUKE's DAUGHTER. It's led by some famous HERO and my job does not involve combat or risk so death is all but assured.

-HERO tells me I get no special treatment and then tells me I should be met by some person.

-The person turns out to be a WOMAN which is the first observation IAN makes. She reacts like a LITTLE GIRL rather than a WOMAN who, in theory, has run into this issue before. She's also supposed to be a veteran, so I can't imagine she has any reason to make such a big deal out of it.

-In her next breath, she warns me not to ogle her BREASTS. In case you're wondering, they are quite LARGE, though unlike LOVE INTEREST, her cleavage does not extend all the way to her collarbone.

-We go off to find some PAPERS in an OLD HIDEOUT. They're in the only chest on the back wall, which is not far from the front wall. Really not sure why this is a thing.

-A SOLDIER appears and WOMAN makes IAN kill him. IAN promptly vomits. He didn't put up as much resistance as I expected, but I guess that played out fairly well.

-I speak to a few NPCS around camp, but, am not really all that interested in most of what they have to say. It's relevant and detailed, but, I don't care about the story on a macroscopic level, so it's difficult to rejoice in the finer points; even when they're well done.

-I speak to WOMAN about how she manipulated me into becoming a killer. IAN seems angry, but is smiling when he bids her good night a second later.

-I wake up the next day to find SOME GUY sharing my tent. He's rather rude...rude beyond believable proportions.

-Everyone else is also pretty rude. This saddens me.

-I forego talking to NPCs any further in favor of starting the 'mission' and continuing the story.

-After an hour of playing, I have some sort of reason to want to see where the story goes, finally, though it's a fairly weak pull. It seems like the writer assumed that a detailed story would create some inertia on its own, but this is not the case. The biggest events to date have been the arranged marriages, which are too cliche to carry impact. Had all of those events taken place over the course of a few minutes, I would not be hesitant to continue. 10 minutes, probably. Even better, if they had been spaced out over some other story instead of back-to-back, they would have been easier to swallow.

-I get the MISSION. WOMAN promises to protect IAN, who counters that he's supposed to be the one protecting her. Nevermind that she's kind of a professional and he has basically no experience at all. It reminds me of ROCKY from CLAYMORE, which is VERY, VERY BAD.

-For the mission, we walk up the same path that LOVE INTEREST and I walked up several years earlier. It's still PERFECTLY STRAIGHT. Variance would be good here, both in the path and in the maps. It's a bit taxing on suspension of disbelief when this happens.

-I have to get a MANIFEST altered for the mission. I engage a in a bit of guess-the-NPC to accomplish this. Next, I perform semi-meaningless actions. That is, as I have only one choice of what to do and it does not involve anything more than pressing the action button to move a crate or such, it is basically a manual cutscene.

-So far, there's been some decent CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT in this warehouse mission, it's spliced between some insultingly tedious gameplay. Basically, talk to this NPC, walk across the whole place to talk to another, talk to several random NPCs, endure manual cutscene, talk to some NPC again, talk to another NPC again, talk to the first NPC again, etc. It feels like it would make a decent cutscene, but the 'interactive' part is very shallow.

-Especially when one of the NPCs makes the excuse of having poor eyesight, a bad memory, faulty hearing and a troublesome hip as the reason why he gave us the run-around.

-If this were a cutscene where the screen just blacked out to take us from one place to the other, this would be pretty funny. Since I had to do it myself, it's more annoying.

-And now I'm looking for a crate among crates. It's like trying to find one specific blade of hay in a haystack.

-I find it. It is completely unmarked. Next, I get to run back and forth between NPCs some more under the pretext of filling out forms.

-WOMAN makes a joke about finishing vegetables. It appears that it's a reference to something that happened earlier that I must have missed due to not fully exploring the camp one of the times when I had a chance.

-WOMAN uses the phrase 'cut me a finger if it points to mushrooms areas.' I really have no idea what that means.

-I get back to the camp and my roommate tells me that he'll break my neck if I snore. How pleasant.

-The next day, upon receiving the MISSION, IAN once again says he'll 'watch over' WOMAN. As I can't slap him, I slap the nearest person instead. MYSELF.

-I encounter another place where the game assumes I've experienced something that I have not.

-It occurs to me that being in this mercenary camp is actually pretty cool. There are characters, a plot to care about (sort of) and nothing sticks out as too cliche because it's usually handled very well. The mission I've been on had some issues, yes, but they weren't in the plot/char dev departments. I would say, then, that the quality of the experience has jumped tremendously from the earlier part...which took like an hour.

-As if sensing my thoughts, IAN opts to go visit LOVE INTEREST to return to the earlier parts of the game.

-This LOVE STORY is dangerously YOUNG ADULT. All flowers and no thorns. Not bad in and of itself, but it can be hard to take seriously at times.

-The next MISSION is about poisoning some OLD GUY. It involves wandering aimlessly around his house trying to interact with everything in hopes that it is THE THING.

-It's like a pixel hunt, easier on the eyes.

-Getting caught restarts the mission rather than going to a GAME OVER screen, which is nice.

-There is a tendency for thinly veiled exposition dumps. They generally aren't super-long, but as there isn't much plot to care about, they're very rarely relevant.

-In order to complete the mission, the player must attempt an obviously POOR CHOICE in order to set the flag needed to make the RIGHT CHOICE.

-It seems that the guards share IAN's tendency to talk to themselves aloud.

-The writer subtly drops many hints that IAN and OLD GUY would have gotten along had the former not been poisoning the latter. It helps build dissonance between what IAN is being forced to do and what his ideal life could have been. Well done.

-I might be wrong here, but...what I know is that WOMAN was kneeling in front of the GUARD she was distracting while behind a bush. The dialogue when she leaves due to IAN's completing the mission is quite suggestive of a BLOWJOB. There is certainly room for such characters, though, as this is the only woman in the game that isn't a PRINCESS or PRINCESS WANNA-BE or DEAD, it would have been nice if she was more than a stew of woman-tropes. It's as if the first consideration in 'what would Luna (her actual name) do' is always: well, she's a woman. It is her primary and dominant trait, and her character seems to suffer for it.

-Apparently, HERO (who rescued her when she was small and she has never since left his side) set her up with an ACTRESS so she could learn how to use her VOICE and BODY to get what she wants, especially from men.

-She then goes on to talk about how MEN are all the same and only exist for such and such and to open jam jars and STUFF. Fill in the blanks as you please.

-On the next MISSION, I'm in the enemy camp doing THINGS. I talk to WOMAN and get a single dialogue option saying I'll ask her if I need her help. I take two steps, find a locked door, and take two steps back to ask her to unlock it.

-There's a door with an ARROW in front of it, but it says that it's locked and I don't need to go in there. Takes a moment to realize it's a 'there's a door here' arrow rather than a 'mission objective' arrow.

-A moment later, I have to check that door again to trigger a flag which allows me to get the necessary option from WOMAN to progress. Not ideal at all...if I trusted the dev, I wouldn't have gone back to recheck everything and would have been stuck for a while.

-After getting the WINE for the guard, he doesn't change his dialogue to take it.

-I have to explore a completely different building that told me before that it was locked (it somehow isn't now) and break into a cabinet in order to find SLEEPING PILLS that I mix with the WINE. There was no mention of these, so, the player is more likely to think (like I did) that the dev has missed a GLITCH.

-The demo ENDS shortly thereafter. It took just over 2 hours to complete, which means that about half of it was the 10-year old love story section.